TCU (3-2) at SDSU (3-1)

Football expenses

Last year’s football expenses for teams making up the past and future Mountain West, according to federal education records:

TCU $20.6 million

BYU $10.3 million

Utah $9.8 million

SDSU $9.5 million

Hawaii $8.2 million

Colorado State $7.2 million

New Mexico $7 million

Boise State $6.8 million

UNLV $6.8 million

Fresno State $6.5 million

Wyoming $6.4 million

Nevada $5.5 million

Air Force N/A

Note: These expenses have since increased for many schools, including Boise, which now spends about $8 million.

The ruling class

Titles: TCU, BYU and Utah have won every Mountain West football championship since 2003.

Wins: TCU, BYU and Utah each have won at least 70 percent of their Mountain West games.

The rest: Of the other teams in the Mountain West, only Air Force (.516) has an all-time winning record in league play.

The future: Utah left for the Pac-12. BYU left for football independence. TCU is poised to leave for the Big 12. Next year, Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii are set to join the Mountain West.

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Texas Christian University spent twice as much on its football team last year as any other team in the history of the Mountain West, according to federal education records.

Some might call it unfair. The Horned Frogs spent $20.6 million on football, compared to $9.5 million for San Diego State. But with TCU on the verge of leaving next year for the Big 12 Conference, Rocky Long has another way of looking at it.

The Mountain West “is getting more competitive,” SDSU’s head coach said.

The bullies are leaving the block, so to speak.

The question for the Aztecs (3-1) is if they can take advantage of it. After losing all six games they’ve ever played against the Frogs, Saturday's 7:30 p.m. rematch at Qualcomm Stadium will provide an early indication.

Is SDSU poised to move into the league’s high-rent district now that Utah, Brigham Young and TCU have made decisions to leave? Or will newcomer Boise State take over the league just like TCU did when it joined in 2005?

“For the rest of the teams that are going to form this league now, there’s a whole bunch of us in the same situation,” Long said. “We’re all in the same situation with crowd support and recruiting. We’re recruiting the same group of athletes.”

They also have roughly the same amount of resources. By contrast, TCU, BYU and Utah were a little different. They formed a ruling class atop the league, winning more than 69 percent of their league games and all league championships since 2003.

Such success then led to more exposure and revenue, which often snowballed to even greater recruiting success and moves into richer neighborhoods. Utah left for the Pac-12. BYU moved on to football independence. This week, the Frogs got an invite to join the Big 12, where their resources will be less conspicuous.

In the Mountain West, TCU also took advantage of being the only school in Texas, where prospects practically grow on trees, according to ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill. Besides San Diego State, other Mountain West schools had much sparser home-state recruiting bases.

TCU’s departure “eliminates the monopoly of one team in the Mountain West owning Texas,” said Luginbill, son of former SDSU coach Al Luginbill. “For the Mountain West, it increases competition for prospects in California and eliminates TCU’s dominance in Texas, which was unique to them in the conference.”

Speedy Texas recruits led TCU to win 41 of 48 Mountain West games, which helped it more than double its athletics budget from $20 million in 2005 to $52 million last year. Last year, BYU athletics also took in revenues of about $41 million but spent only $35 million. By comparison, the 10 teams that are to be part of the Mountain West next year have athletic department budgets around $22 million to $33 million, including football budgets around $7 million to $9 million. Even Boise State, an elite program in recent years, spends about $31 million on athletics and $8 million on football.

“There’s no reason San Diego State can’t be the next Utah or TCU,” Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said during a visit to SDSU in August. “Prior to hiring (head coach) Gary Patterson, TCU had nearly two decades of sub-. 500 records.”

The Frogs went to just two bowl games from 1966 to 1997, similar to SDSU, which went to just two bowl games from 1970 to 1997. Financially, last year the Utes even had similar resources as SDSU — a $32 million athletics budget, according to records. But they’ve had far different success on the field, a fact that can be attributed to good coaching hires (Urban Meyer, Kyle Whittingham) and recruiting, which got a boost from undefeated seasons in 2004 and 2008.

Likewise, SDSU got a boost from last year’s success, its first winning season since 1998. This year, Long sees the league like this:

“Boise State is the class of the league … and TCU is by far the second-best team in this league,” Long said. “The rest you can throw us all in a hat, and we’re going to fight it out.”

Next year, with TCU gone, it’s a similar free-for-all. And if SDSU is going to make a move, its Mountain West opener Saturday would be a good time to start. TCU (3-2) appears to be having a down year after giving up almost as many points in five games (139) as it did in 13 last season (156).

“They are unbelievable athletically,” Patterson said of SDSU. “We haven’t played anyone as an overall football team that is as athletic as what San Diego State is.”

Here's a look at last year’s football expenses for teams making up the past and future Mountain West, according to federal education records:

TCU 20.6 million

BYU $10.3 million

Utah $9.8 million

SDSU $9.5 million

Hawaii $8.2 million

Colorado State $7.2 million

New Mexico $7 million

Boise State $6.8 million

UNLV $6.8 million

Fresno State $6.5 million

Wyoming $6.4 million

Nevada $5.5 million

Air Force N/A

Note: These expenses have since increased for many schools, including Boise, which now spends about $8 million.